Klopp also praises "unstoppable" Lionel Messi while Andy Robertson and Virgil van Dijk call Messi "the best player in the world"
Thursday 2 May 2019 13:31, UK
Jurgen Klopp hailed his Liverpool players in the Nou Camp, calling it "their best away Champions League performance" despite losing 3-0 to Barcelona.
Lionel Messi scored twice to put Barcelona in pole position of their Champions League semi-final but Liverpool controlled large periods of the clash, recording 15 shots on goal.
James Milner, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah all went close for the unfortunate Reds, who lacked Barcelona's killer instinct in front of goal.
"It's OK to lose away in the Champions League as long as you score a goal, we didn't and that's a problem," Klopp said.
"That makes our life not easy. My boys gained a lot of respect again for the way they played and how they've developed. I had so much fun watching that game but we lost it. That's not fun. But I've been in this business for a long time and I have learned to accept."
He added: "These boys never give up. I love that. But there's no party in that dressing room. We will use the game to show the boys how important it was for their development. I really think it was the best away game we've played in the Champions League - it's an important message for us."
Messi took the game away from Liverpool with two goals in seven minutes.
His free-kick to make it 3-0 - his 600th goal for Barcelona - will live long in the memory and Klopp admitted there was little his team could have done to stop him in that situation.
"In those moments, he is unstoppable - we couldn't defend the free-kick," Klopp said.
"He's a world-class player. His second goal wasn't the greatest goal in the career of Lionel Messi but it shows his skills. He is there in that moment.
"I was happy with how we defended against all of the Barca team, including Messi. I am a bit admirer of him but my boys didn't show too much respect. They tried with completely legal things, we played football."
Barcelona midfielder Arturo Vidal described Messi as "spectacular" while Andy Robertson said Liverpool had done "relatively well" against the 31-year-old until his quickfire double changed the complexion of the tie.
"We know how good he is. We're not going to hide away from it. He's the best player in the world, but I thought we did relatively well against him," he said.
"He scored a tap-in and then the free-kick is world class and you can't get in the way of that, but how many times has he done that? He's a world-class player but hopefully can we keep him quiet on Tuesday and let's see what we can do."
Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk had an engaging battle with Messi, but reflected on the difficulty of keeping Barcelona's star player quiet for 90 minutes.
"He's a fantastic player, that's pretty obvious. I think the difficult part against him is when we are attacking he's chilling somewhere in the corner or something. So you need to be so aware with the defensive organisation," he said.
"We knew how it would be, we knew we could overplay on that side, but when we lose easy balls or difficult balls they just try to find him and make it difficult for us on the break. I think he's the best player in the world and he's got that little bit extra as well that he's shown over the years."
Spanish press lauded Messi for his performance. "Delirium" and "the Pope of football" were two of the front-page headlines in Thursday's newspapers while columnist Alfredo Relano wrote in AS that this was one of Messi's best displays.
"Messi's exhibition last night will not be forgotten. He has already seen thousands of wonders and dozens of prodigious games, but yesterday exceeds all the above. I
"A tremendous Liverpool, which scared the Camp Nou, was defeated 3-0 without understanding how or why."
Van Dijk says he still believes Liverpool can turn around their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona after a 3-0 defeat in the Nou Camp on Tuesday.
The Dutch defender lamented his team's failure to score an away goal, but said the task facing Liverpool is not insurmountable.
"3-0 sounds very bad," said Van Dijk. "It sounds like we had a proper shocker, but we created big chances against them and should have scored at least one.
"Then it would be a totally different feeling to what we have now, but we have to take it how it is.
"I know it's going to be very tough to come to Anfield. We all have to believe, I will definitely believe, so we'll see."
